The 11:59 Bomber

Title: The 11:59 Bomber
Author: Marshall Karp
Published: November 25, 2025 by Blackstone Publishing, Inc.
Format: Kindle, 368 Pages
Genre: Police Procedureal
Series: NYPD Red #8

Blurb: A bomb explodes in a crowded New York subway station at exactly 11:59 a.m. The next day, a second blast rips through a busy department store—again at 11:59.

As the bombs go off with clockwork precision, the death toll climbs and businesses shut their doors as the city hunkers down in fear.

NYPD Red Detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan face their most twisted case ever, as they race against the clock in search of one man who has vowed “to destroy New York City the way it destroyed my family.”

My Opinion: It has been over three years since The Murder Sorority hit shelves, and I’ll admit, I’d started to wonder if NYPD Red #8 was ever going to materialize. When The 11:59 Bomber finally appeared, I picked it up “just to see” if I remembered who was who. You know how that goes -- one paragraph becomes one chapter, and suddenly you’re halfway through the book, wondering when you last looked up from the page.

There’s something about this series that has always worked for me. Maybe it’s the humor tucked between the high stakes moments, or the emotional beats that land more often than not. Maybe it’s the trust detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan, and the whole high octane RED squad. Whatever that alchemy is, I was genuinely hoping it hadn’t faded during the long gap. Thankfully, the energy remains.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this series is the multiple plotlines. For readers, like me, who get restless with straight line storytelling, this is a welcome relief. There’s always another thread to follow, another angle to consider, another moment where you think, “Okay, now this is where the squad shows its strength,” only to realize Karp has a few more turns planned.

By the end, a couple of interpersonal threads are left dangling, not in a frustrating way, but rather as an open invitation. If (or when) Karp decides to pick them back up, I have no doubt the series faithful will be right there, ready to see what the RED squad gets tangled in next. After a three year wait, I’m just relieved the door hasn’t closed on them yet.

Mad Mabel

Title: Mad Mabel
Author: Sally Hepworth
Published: April 21, 2026 by St. Martin's Press
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Genre: Thriller

Blurb: There are two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street for sixty years—longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past she's worked exceedingly hard at concealing—because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

My Opinion: This was my first Sally Hepworth novel, so I went in without any expectations, and honestly, during the first few chapters, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. It dragged for me in a way that would send most readers quietly backing out of the book. I can’t blame them; I was right there too, hovering over the “DNF” button. However, people adore this author, so I kept going, convinced I must have been missing something.

And then the “then/now” structure begins to take effect. The heartbreaking, inevitable next-shoe-drop of Mad Mabel’s story begins to surface, and suddenly the book shifts. You start to see how someone who has never truly been cared for might build their own reality, not out of delusion, but out of sheer survival. It’s the kind of emotional logic that makes sense only when you’ve lived through loneliness long enough to forget what normal feels like.

Mabel herself? She’s not someone you’d invite over for coffee. She’s prickly, caustic, and more than a little abrasive. But that’s just the armor. Underneath is a woman who has been dismissed, judged, and condemned since birth. There are likable characters here, even a “beautiful mind” type who deserves more spotlight, but Mabel’s presence overshadows everyone except Persephone, who quietly holds the entire book together.

And then comes that creeping dread. You see the grooming long before Mabel does. You hope you’re wrong, but deep down you know you’re not. She’s so desperate to belong, to be seen, to be loved, that she walks straight into the arms of someone who recognizes that vulnerability a little too well. The sense of sickness that settles in your stomach is earned, and when the world drops out from under her again, it’s devastating.

But here’s the part I didn’t expect: the twists. What begins as a story of isolation becomes one about found family. The kind that shows up for an 81 year old woman who has never had anyone show up for her before. For the first time in her life, Mabel learns what it means not to be alone.

And those final twists? I was flipping pages like my life depended on it. Everything snaps into place with a kind of precision that made me rethink my early frustration. I’m genuinely glad I didn’t give up on Mabel; she’s had enough people do that already.

And that last line… I just sat there, stunned, mouth open, trying to process what I’d just read.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Title: Dungeon Crawler Carl
Author: Matt Dinniman
Published: October 2, 2020 by Dandy House
Format: Kindle, 464 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl #1

Blurb: A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.

In a flash, every human-erected construction on Earth—from Buckingham Palace to the tiniest of sheds—collapses in a heap, sinking into the ground.

The buildings and all the people inside have all been atomized and transformed into the dungeon: an 18-level labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and loot. A dungeon so enormous, it circles the entire globe.

Only a few dare venture inside. But once you're in, you can't get out. And what's worse, each level has a time limit. You have but days to find a staircase to the next level down, or it's game over. In this game, it's not about your strength or your dexterity. It's about your followers, your views. Your clout. It's about building an audience and killing those goblins with style.

You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.

You gotta fight with vigor, with excitement. You gotta make them stand up and cheer. And if you do have that "it" factor, you may just find yourself with a following. That's the only way to truly survive in this game—with the help of the loot boxes dropped upon you by the generous benefactors watching from across the galaxy.

My Opinion: Yes, I fell for the hype and the influence of the book people in my life who insisted Dungeon Crawler Carl was “absolutely my thing.” For the record, I am not the intended demographic here. RPGs have never been part of my world, unless you count watching other people play them while I nod politely and pretend to follow. And yet, somehow, I still found myself giggling my way through Carl and Princess Donut’s increasingly unhinged dungeon adventures.

I’ll be honest: my brain absolutely refused to catalog the endless stream of loot, treasures, and stat boosts they kept accumulating. At some point, I adopted a personal policy of “they’ll have what they need, and if they don’t, they’ll figure it out.” That mindset kept me sane, and frankly, it seems to be working out just fine for them, too.

And Donut. Oh, Donut. Who among us can resist a snarky, self-important, chaos summoning cat with princess energy? She’s a lot, but she’s also the beating heart of the story in a way I didn’t expect.

As the book goes on, you meet humans and creatures who are more than just dungeon fodder. Their backstories sneak up on you with little pockets of hope in a world designed to crush them. And yes, hope is not a strategy, but sometimes it’s the only thing anyone has left. Those moments hit harder than I anticipated.

Now, fair warning: some of the squishier scenes are… well, squishy.

What surprised me most was how much deeper the themes run beneath the jokes, gore, and general absurdity. I went in expecting surface-level chaos and fart humor. Instead, Carl and Donut stumble into questions about group survival versus self-preservation, corporate ownership of human lives, greed, identity erosion, manipulation, the randomness of fate, resilience, ethics, and the strange ways partnership forms under pressure. There’s satire here, yes, but also a surprising amount to unpack if you’re willing to look past the show.

And the parallels to corporate America? Let’s just say the dungeon doesn’t even bother to hide the metaphor. Both systems treat people as expendable resources, constantly shift the rules, and reward performance over substance. The dungeon just makes the satire literal, and somehow, even more pointed.

At first, I had no idea how to rate this book. I wasn’t sure if it was for me or if I was just along for the ride out of curiosity. But as the challenges stacked and Carl and Princess Donut Best in Dungeon (her words, not mine) began to understand what they were truly up against, I found myself appreciating the unexpected depth. Donut may need an audience, but she’s also telling us something real beneath the theatrics. And honestly? I’m here for her.

A Judgement of Powers

Title: A Judgement of Powers
Author: Benedict Jacka
Published: November 4, 2025, by Ace
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Inheritance of Magic #3

Blurb: Stephen Oakwood’s ambitions used to be simple. Pay his bills, track down his father, and take care of his cat. Maybe study a little magic after work, if he had time.

Now it’s a year later and he’s got everything he wanted. But it’s come with a price.

The Winged, a mysterious group involved with his father, have noticed Stephen, and they want him to join them or else. His career as a corporate locator has hit a dead end. And his new job as bodyguard to Calhoun Ashford is proving a lot more lethal than expected due to assassination attempts from outside the House, and possibly also from within.

To survive, Stephen’s going to need allies of his own. And along the way, he’s going to have to figure out the secret of his own gift, and what it means. The cults, Houses, and corporations of the magical world are locked in an endless battle for dominance, and Stephen is beginning to realize that he’s going to have to pick a side . . . before someone else picks it for him.

My Opinion: I went into this novel with a very specific kind of caution—the kind you develop when a series you want to love wobbles on its second outing. I adored An Inheritance of Magic. The follow up, An Instruction in Shadow, left me lukewarm at best. So, this third book? This was the make or break moment, especially knowing Jacka is aiming for 12–14 books. That’s a long road to commit to if the spark isn’t there.

Thankfully, Jacka comes roaring back with the confidence and clarity of his earlier work. From page one, he had me. No wasted space. He even manages a tidy recap, but it is not a substitute for reading the series in order.

Stephen Oakwood and his realizations continue to be the most compelling parts of this world. He’s always reminded me of Din Kol from Robert Jackson Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan series. Both 20-ish-year-old men are sharp, stubborn, a little battered, and endlessly compelling. If Din is your kind of protagonist, you’ll feel right at home here. The mystery, the magic, the banter, the characters, and their backstories are all here.

Now, Jacka still indulges in a habit of pausing to walk readers through the Houses, their leaders, their histories, and their specialties. For me, those sections always lag a bit. I’m not going to remember the finer points until they matter, and that’s fine. My brain files them under “retrieve later” and moves on. When they become plot critical, the details will snap into place.

There was one moment early on—a paragraph that seemed to be setting up something important—that never resurfaced. I kept waiting for it, convinced it was a breadcrumb for a later reveal. But it simply… vanished. Maybe it’s something Jacka cut or postponed for a future book. Maybe it’s a seed that hasn’t sprouted yet. Either way, it hovered in the back of my mind the entire time.

Oh, the ending. This is where Jacka reminds you exactly why you signed up for this series in the first place. A battle. A reckoning. A shift in purpose. Stephen finally steps into the direction he’s been circling since book one, and it feels honest. It feels right. It feels like the true beginning of the long game Jacka has been planning.

Let the games begin, indeed.